IT is the role of the creative arts to poke at the status quo and provoke wider, broader and imaginative thinking. It is how we pay attention to the often unnoticed, appreciate the glory and beauty around us, and how we shift ourselves into creating change for the better.
Sometimes that process can be discomforting, or even upsetting, but how can we appreciate the enormity of an experience that hasn’t touched us without the words and depictions of an artist that demands our attention? When Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, or Shakespeare highlighted antisemitism in the Merchant of Venice, audiences shifted their stance in discomfort, and generations later we still observe the questions asked.
Art will often be a reflection of the trends around us, but often it asks us if we wish to set a new trend. When Moving Hearts took to a stage to reimagine Irish traditional music they also brought themes of nuclear disarmament, anti-colonialism and human rights, shifting a censored and placated Free State into awareness of the world around them.
Today’s artists are no different. When Lankum stride across Europe their magical aura is spun with an unapologetic message of universal human rights and awareness of the Palestinian plight. When Fontaines DC take to the stage they raise the working classes and their concerns with engaged outrage at the unending disparities locally and internationally. The discomfort is real but rarely makes the headlines.
But when working class artists from West Belfast raise their voices in what concerns them they are invariably met with a different type of discomfort. When they wonder about rates of private landlordism and poverty in a community that is a generation from the actual conflict they are viewed as awkward. But watch when they dare speak of the impact of British militarisation and colonialism and how their magnificence is then singled out for vitriol. When these West Belfast artists don’t “know their place” and push and challenge power, wherever that resides, the insecure get nasty, like sleeping dogs moved from their place in front of the fire.
Of course if their challenge is directed at Sinn Féin, well that’s fine for the conservatives, but if the challenge is directed at British or Israeli states there is a kneejerk that is nearly as funny as it is predictable, as they prove the point in spades. Albeit with heavy personal price.
One in three kids in West Belfast living in poverty is an outrage that requires long term and radical change. Lola Petticrew choosing to use their platform – having won an award for their gorgeous portrayal of Cúisle in Trespasses – was as important as when they used the same platform last year, having won the same award for their immense portrayal of Dolours Price in Say Nothing, to highlight the ongoing and desperate impact of transgenerational trauma and resulting poor mental health. It is instructive how one speech drew ire, and the other was ignored.
Drive around Belfast and you will see recording, filming, painting and singing. The songs, stories and images are of a vibrant, unapologetic community and individuals who see their place in history and in a world facing unprecedented challenge. Those who see a future which can encourage, thrive and foster better than what went before. We are living through a 21st century domestic renaissance, if we just look around to appreciate it.
